Tag Archives: There But Not There

On 28th April 1944, 749 American servicemen were killed off Slapton Sands in Devon during a rehearsal for D-Day called Operation Tiger.

As the troops were on the water preparing to practice landing on the beaches, German E-boats were alerted to activity in the area and attacked.

Due to the need for absolute secrecy the tragedy was kept quiet and, even today, is not as well-known as it should be.

These servicemen were the first casualties of D-Day, so to highlight this story and to launch our D-Day 75 commemorative campaign, today we laid 749 pairs of Bootprints on the same beach at Slapton Sands.

D-Day and the Battle of Normandy saw over 50,000 servicemen and women die – from Britain, the Commonwealth and America – in a battle that would turn the tide of the Second World War.

This year’s There But Not There campaign encourages you to walk in the bootprints of those servicemen and women who gave their lives in this extraordinary battle.

Our Bootprint plaques each carry the name of someone who died during this battle and all profits support projects that help today’s veterans get back into employment after their service.

Buy your Bootprint

You can buy your table-top Bootprint in our shop and you can choose to have it inscribed either with the name of someone from the American or the British and Commonwealth list of the fallen for £29.99.

Alternatively, you can choose an unnamed plaque for £22.99 which you can personalise yourself with the name of someone you wish to remember from the Second World War or any other conflict.

Our Bootprint stickers (£4.80) are ideal for community groups, schools and businesses wanting to show their support and we offer both a biodegradable and vinyl option.

If you want to find out more about your family’s wartime history, we recommend purchasing a membership to Forces War Records, who have offered us a 40% discount code: enter FWR40off at checkout.

The Soldiering On Awards

We are delighted to announce that There But Not There was nominated for a Soldiering On Award! On Friday night, the whole team attended the awards, to see if we would win the Business of the Year – Community Impact Award.

Sadly, we didn’t win the award, but we were proud to have been nominated alongside four incredible business and we would like to congratulate Sinah Common Honey for their well-deserved win.

What’s next?

While we have been away from your inboxes, we’ve been working incredibly hard on our upcoming campaign, commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944.

We will be announcing our campaign on our social media channels and in an upcoming newsletter – so stay tuned!

Commemorate those who died in the First World War through art installations wherever there is a Roll of Honour.Educate all generations, particularly the young, to learn from and recognise the sacrifice made by so many service personnel.Heal today’s veterans who are suffering from the mental and physical wounds of their services.

As we head into 2019, we want to share our 2018 highlights with you.

Our silhouettes were installed in 3,500 communities around the UK.
We teamed up with the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust to ensure all communities that wanted to remember their Fallen could host a commemorative installation in their local area. Uniformed youth groups, schools, places of worship and community spaces around the country returned figures back to the spaces they left behind 100 years ago.

We shared educational resources with 24,000 schools
Our educational resources were downloaded by schools around the country, helping to support the teaching of the First World War in both primary and secondary classrooms and encouraging the younger generation to better understand the true impact of war.

Our Tommies have been taken into more than 80,000 homes
Our incredible success on the first day of our campaign has continued through the year and it’s wonderful to know that so many families are using our Tommies to remember family members or loved ones who served in the First World War and conflicts since.

We have taken our campaign to Downing Street, The Treasury and to Parliament
Over 120,000 of you signed our petition to return the VAT charged on our Tommies. Thanks to your support, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that a donation equivalent to the VAT will be made to our beneficiaries. This is wonderful news and means that even more money is raised with each Tommy sold. Thank you.

Our 6ft Tommies have been installed in some truly iconic locations
From the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the Millennium Stadium and Lords Cricket Ground, governmental and sporting institutions have shown their support for our campaign.

… As well as internationally – in the USA, Canada and Australia

And we ended the year with a Millie!

We were over the moon to win the award for ‘Support for the Armed Forces at The Sun Military Awards in December. This is in no small part down to the incredible backing we have received from our supporters, so thank you for being part of our campaign.

Here’s to 2019!We have had an incredible year and we cannot wait to share our plans for next year with you. We are continuing to sell our remaining Tommies, to remember those who were still suffering after the end of the war and to raise money for veterans who need our support today.

Our Tommies make great Christmas gifts for anyone in the military or with an interest in history. Not only are you buying a gift to remember the fallen, you are also helping raise money for our six beneficiary charities – so your purchase really is a gift for good.

As well as being a great gift, your Tommy purchase will help us #BringTommyHomeForXmas.

18,355 people died between 12th November and 31st December 1918 from sporadic fighting, wounds sustained during the war and the influenza pandemic. After surviving the war, none of these people made it home for Christmas in 1918.

Order by tomorrow, Monday 17th December, to guarantee delivery in time for Christmas.

Please note, if you ordered a Golden Ticket Tommy, you will receive your standard classic Tommy it in the next few days. If you won – congratulations! Your winning Tommy will also arrive this week.

We are delighted to be stocked in Peter Jones, Sloane Square and in John Lewis, Oxford Street – and we’re hoping to see our Tommies in more stores around the country soon!

18,355 people died between 12th November and 31st December 1918 from sporadic fighting, wounds sustained during the war and the influenza pandemic. After surviving the war, none of these people was able to make it home for Christmas in 1918.

This December, we want to bring Tommy home for Christmas and we need your help!

If you can volunteer at Peter Jones in Sloane Square, London or John Lewis, Oxford Street, London, please reply to this email and let us know your availability.

If you might be available to volunteer elsewhere, please let us know when and where and we’ll be in contact if we’re in a John Lewis store near you.

Remembering the 18,355

Any Tommies bought this December will come with a link to our Remembrance Wall. Here you can generate a name, from the 18,355 servicemen and women from Britain and the Commonwealth who died, to remember.

We have been touched by the many stories we received from our supporters about their Armistice commemorations. Seeing our Tommies and silhouettes at the centre of your communities was incredible – thank you for your support!

Keep Remembering

It is right that we come together every November to remember those who died in conflicts around the world, but for those who have come back from recent conflicts with physical or mental wounds, or for those whose family members did not return, the need for support remains.

Our beneficiary charities provide support to veterans and their families throughout the year. Whether as a personal token of remembrance, or as a Christmas ‘Gift for Good’, our Tommies will make a difference to veterans today. Purchase yours here.

Golden Ticket Tommies

We have had support from some incredible high profile supporters this year and now many of them are supporting our Golden Ticket promotion.

Purchase a Tommy via our Golden Ticket page and you could win a signed thank you from Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Red Arrows, Warwick Davis and many others.

Walking Home for Christmas

Walking Home For Christmas

This year we’re supporting Walking Home For Christmas, from two of our beneficiaries, Walking With The Wounded and Help for Heroes. We hope that all our supporters will sign up for free to support the walk, raising vital funds for veterans and their families who are at risk, including those who are socially isolated, unemployed or struggling with mental health problems this Christmas.

Calling all photographers!

As part of our involvement, we will be running a photography competition for the duration of the campaign. We want all of you to sign up to the walk and take your 10″Tommy with you, to capture the best image of our Tommy on your route home. All entries will be judged by the artist behind the There But Not There campaign, Martin Barraud, with a winner announced across our channels before Christmas!

This has been a special weekend of Remembrance as the nation marked exactly 100 years since the Armistice in 1918. Your support this year, particularly over the last few weeks, has been invaluable and we wanted to say thank you.

Just because Remembrance Weekend is coming to a close, it doesn’t mean that the need for our work is closing too. In fact, veterans need support year round and we must work to fund that vital support.

Thanks to their support, if you now purchase one of our original 10″ Tommies and you can enter a draw to win:

A second special engraved classic Tommy

A personal written thank you from the individual whose draw you entered, with a photo

Please note, you will receive your classic original Tommy within 2 weeks of purchase. Winners will be notified after 3rd December and you can find out more about the promotion on our Golden Ticket page.As always, all profits raised through sales of our Tommies will contribute directly to the work carried out by our beneficiary charities.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Tottenham Hotspurs and England Captain Harry Kane.

How did you remember this weekend?

We know that many of you had Tommies or silhouette installations at the centre of your commemorations. We would love to hear how you remembered the fallen of WWI this weekend.

Please reply to this email with your stories and pictures and we’ll send out a round up later this week.

75th Anniversary of D-DayJune 6, 2019 at 6:00 pm – 7:30 pmMarines' Memorial Club & Hotel, 609 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94102, USAOn 6 June 1944, 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces launched one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history along a 50-mile stretch of the coast of Normandy, France. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the end of WWII in Europe, Brigadier (Retd.) Roderick Macdonald MBE and Dr. Seth Givens will…